This review may contain spoilers
A Feast Across Time: How "Mangunrok" Turned Cooking Into the Most Heartbreaking Love Story
I cried through the entire last episode from start to finish ! no joke!
Where should I even begin? This show has been my comfort for the past month and a half. Every week was exhausting: from university to work, then coming home to study again. I was at my happiest when I was watching it.
I’m a food and cooking lover. Every day, I try new recipes and ingredients, and each episode took me at least two hours to finish because of how often I paused and rewound, taking notes on recipes, cooking techniques, and screenshotting the dishes.
Yoona’s acting as a chef was incredibly convincing — from the way she held the knife to how she delivered lines about what it’s like to be a chef. I was mesmerized. It felt like I was looking at the version of myself that could have been, had I chosen to become a chef. The thought of making people happy with my food ; especially my loved ones ; felt so fulfilling. Despite the struggles, Cook Yeon clearly enjoyed her craft, and that joy radiated through the screen. I’m determined to recreate all of the royal cuisine shown in the series. Being from France, I also loved how she incorporated French culinary elements.
I felt sad reading some of the comments complaining about the cooking competition when, to me, it was the best part of the show. Everything else was about treason plots and palace schemes, which often made us viewers feel gloomy. I’ve watched almost every time-travel Joseon-era K-drama, so I’d already prepared myself for a tragic ending. That’s why I truly cherished the cooking-competition segments; they were the bright spots, and I made sure to savor them as much as I could.
Another highlight for me, aside from the cooking, was Lee Chae-min. Many comments have already praised his acting, but I want to add something about his character. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a character as tragic as Yeonhuigun. I’ve seen two other K-dramas portraying this historical Joseon king, and while I always pitied him, it was usually in a detached way ; feeling sorry for his fate but never really understanding his pain. This drama was different. For the first time, I could empathize with him as a child who had unjustly lost his mother. This depth came from Lee Chae-min’s incredible acting and the show’s nuanced portrayal of a “tyrant” king.
Some viewers complained about the lack of romance, but for me, the cooking itself was the romance. Imagine making the tyrant king of Joseon fall for you through food. Every time she cooked a new dish, thinking of his needs, well-being, mood, and what would be best for him, was there anything more romantic than that? I don’t think many people understood the symbolism behind those dishes.
And then there’s the Mangunrok. The time-loop element was handled much better than I expected because it wove the romance into the story too. The king recorded all of her recipes in that diary, as if casting a spell to bring her back. No matter how many timelines she altered, the king’s love never changed. Through his yearning and his call for her, she always returned, and he always found his way back to her, in every single timeline. They were destined to be together across every version of the story.
The moment he realized he had truly been a tyrant all along shattered me. What broke me further was his realization that the “tyrant” Cook Yeon had described at the start was actually him. Instead of lamenting his downfall as a dethroned king, he said, “You recognized me from the beginning,” emphasizing his love for her — accepting everything, even his own flaws. Every time she was hurt or in danger, the way his eyes and heart reached out to her made me teary-eyed.
When he finally understood the true meaning of the Mangunrok, I wept uncontrollably. It revealed that he was both the cause of her time-travel—since he wrote the journal—and the reason she could go to the future, at all! It’s tragic and beautiful at the same time.
Here’s how he traveled to the future: when he realized the Mangunrok she sought was actually his journal, he desperately tried to close the book as Cook Yeon was being pulled into it, even tearing out the last page to stop her from leaving. Earlier, when Cook Yeon was watching the king fight and holding the book while crying, she discovered that the previously “missing” last page — the one she noticed on the plane — was now intact. This showed her that she was holding a version of the book from before she returned to the past. That page read: “Dish that makes you remember home.” It was also the first dish she had ever cooked for the king.
In that moment, she understood everything; that she was destined to return. When she was about to die, she confessed that she never truly wanted to go back, not just because of her wounds, but because of what she realized flipping through the pages. The last page’s words, “home,” ultimately sent her back. When the king later died, that same last page that didn't disappear with her landed on him, fulfilling his final wish.
The time-travel magic of the Mangunrok was rooted entirely in the king’s love. The first page of the book expressed his wish to see her again, bringing her to the Joseon era. The last page expressed the same wish, this time taking him to her in the future. The book’s first and last pages were like spells powered by his love across time.
I found it brilliant that the last page’s dish was bibimbap — a meal tied to the feeling of home. In the end, he cooked it for her in THEIR home in the future. The last page of the diary reunited them.
This is why I believe the time-travel element, the Mangunrok, and all the symbolism behind it were perfectly executed. This drama became my second favorite of the year for that reason alone. The series has its flaws here and there, but overall, I’d give it a solid 9/10.
Where should I even begin? This show has been my comfort for the past month and a half. Every week was exhausting: from university to work, then coming home to study again. I was at my happiest when I was watching it.
I’m a food and cooking lover. Every day, I try new recipes and ingredients, and each episode took me at least two hours to finish because of how often I paused and rewound, taking notes on recipes, cooking techniques, and screenshotting the dishes.
Yoona’s acting as a chef was incredibly convincing — from the way she held the knife to how she delivered lines about what it’s like to be a chef. I was mesmerized. It felt like I was looking at the version of myself that could have been, had I chosen to become a chef. The thought of making people happy with my food ; especially my loved ones ; felt so fulfilling. Despite the struggles, Cook Yeon clearly enjoyed her craft, and that joy radiated through the screen. I’m determined to recreate all of the royal cuisine shown in the series. Being from France, I also loved how she incorporated French culinary elements.
I felt sad reading some of the comments complaining about the cooking competition when, to me, it was the best part of the show. Everything else was about treason plots and palace schemes, which often made us viewers feel gloomy. I’ve watched almost every time-travel Joseon-era K-drama, so I’d already prepared myself for a tragic ending. That’s why I truly cherished the cooking-competition segments; they were the bright spots, and I made sure to savor them as much as I could.
Another highlight for me, aside from the cooking, was Lee Chae-min. Many comments have already praised his acting, but I want to add something about his character. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a character as tragic as Yeonhuigun. I’ve seen two other K-dramas portraying this historical Joseon king, and while I always pitied him, it was usually in a detached way ; feeling sorry for his fate but never really understanding his pain. This drama was different. For the first time, I could empathize with him as a child who had unjustly lost his mother. This depth came from Lee Chae-min’s incredible acting and the show’s nuanced portrayal of a “tyrant” king.
Some viewers complained about the lack of romance, but for me, the cooking itself was the romance. Imagine making the tyrant king of Joseon fall for you through food. Every time she cooked a new dish, thinking of his needs, well-being, mood, and what would be best for him, was there anything more romantic than that? I don’t think many people understood the symbolism behind those dishes.
And then there’s the Mangunrok. The time-loop element was handled much better than I expected because it wove the romance into the story too. The king recorded all of her recipes in that diary, as if casting a spell to bring her back. No matter how many timelines she altered, the king’s love never changed. Through his yearning and his call for her, she always returned, and he always found his way back to her, in every single timeline. They were destined to be together across every version of the story.
The moment he realized he had truly been a tyrant all along shattered me. What broke me further was his realization that the “tyrant” Cook Yeon had described at the start was actually him. Instead of lamenting his downfall as a dethroned king, he said, “You recognized me from the beginning,” emphasizing his love for her — accepting everything, even his own flaws. Every time she was hurt or in danger, the way his eyes and heart reached out to her made me teary-eyed.
When he finally understood the true meaning of the Mangunrok, I wept uncontrollably. It revealed that he was both the cause of her time-travel—since he wrote the journal—and the reason she could go to the future, at all! It’s tragic and beautiful at the same time.
Here’s how he traveled to the future: when he realized the Mangunrok she sought was actually his journal, he desperately tried to close the book as Cook Yeon was being pulled into it, even tearing out the last page to stop her from leaving. Earlier, when Cook Yeon was watching the king fight and holding the book while crying, she discovered that the previously “missing” last page — the one she noticed on the plane — was now intact. This showed her that she was holding a version of the book from before she returned to the past. That page read: “Dish that makes you remember home.” It was also the first dish she had ever cooked for the king.
In that moment, she understood everything; that she was destined to return. When she was about to die, she confessed that she never truly wanted to go back, not just because of her wounds, but because of what she realized flipping through the pages. The last page’s words, “home,” ultimately sent her back. When the king later died, that same last page that didn't disappear with her landed on him, fulfilling his final wish.
The time-travel magic of the Mangunrok was rooted entirely in the king’s love. The first page of the book expressed his wish to see her again, bringing her to the Joseon era. The last page expressed the same wish, this time taking him to her in the future. The book’s first and last pages were like spells powered by his love across time.
I found it brilliant that the last page’s dish was bibimbap — a meal tied to the feeling of home. In the end, he cooked it for her in THEIR home in the future. The last page of the diary reunited them.
This is why I believe the time-travel element, the Mangunrok, and all the symbolism behind it were perfectly executed. This drama became my second favorite of the year for that reason alone. The series has its flaws here and there, but overall, I’d give it a solid 9/10.
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